So far, Harlow's #watermelondress was on both Inside Edition and Kelly and Ryan Live. Mazzy was like, "Wait! What about MY watermelon dress???" She's right. The pink fringe cap sleeve is an excellent addition. Still think #babymeloning is the better hashtag!

Everybody is smiling and looking at camera! I just posted my latest travel vlog which follows our three day road trip in Central New York! It rained a lot but we still had tons of fun. Don't miss Harlow dancing like a robot and Mazzy talking "duck." I think this is my favorite travel video so far. YouTube link in bio!

She's getting her hair cut today. I was going to leave work and meet her and our sitter there but I'm too swamped. It's the first time she's getting a cut without me. Fingers crossed they don't chop it all off or give her faux hawk!

If you don't already know, "a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk" has replaced Harlow's waffle obsession. She asks for it every single morning, in those words exactly. If I were to say, "Harlow, do you want a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios?" She would say, "Yes, WITH MILK." Also, ever since Harlow and I made that video about how to make cereal (link in bio- FYI, the longer YouTube version is even better than the one I put on Insta), Harlow has been really into making her own breakfast in the morning. Her and Mazzy have even taken our cereal orders at night and then pre-set the table with our names written on the napkins. Then they instruct us to stay in bed until everything is ready. It's actually some of the few times we've been able to sit down to breakfast all together as a family at the dining room table. Thanks @cheerios for helping make the mornings easier this summer! #generalmillscereal #sponsored

Chef Mazzy is Taking Orders in the Kitchen

Giveaway: $250 of MightyNest Kitchen Tools and Tableware

When I was little, one of my favorite things to do with my mom in the kitchen was make “Chicken on the Beach”. It’s just breaded chicken cutlets fried in a pan, but my mother created this whole story to make it more fun for us to do together.

The chicken wasn’t getting dipped in egg, it was going for a swim in the ocean.

The chicken wasn’t getting coated in bread crumbs, it was playing in the sand.

The chicken wasn’t frying in a pan, it was bathing in the sun.

As a kid, the story was an easy way for me to remember all the steps on my own. It was also one of the first times “cooking with mom” wasn’t just standing there and observing— there was real responsibility involved.

When Mighty Nest asked me to take their latest healthy living challenge called “Empowering Your Kids in the Kitchen“, the first thing I thought about was teaching Mazzy to make “Chicken on the Beach”. The theory is if kids are more involved in choosing and cooking their food, they might actually be more interested in their meals and open to experimentation.

We all know I would do anything to have less picky kids.

A few weeks ago I took Mighty Nest’s first challenge to use eco-friendly reusable containers for Mazzy’s school lunch. As a result, I started experimenting with their Bento boxes in hopes they would get Mazzy to try new things. Mazzy continues to like the Bento Boxes and I really like making them. They help me give her a variety of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, which she almost always finishes. (Imagine that!) But, I wouldn’t say her picky eating habits have changed. She still wants turkey sandwiches every day. And she rejects every new food item I introduce.

When I originally decided to take this second challenge, I thought I would be trying to expand Mazzy’s lunch options by using some of the things you guys suggested in my previous post. But Mazzy isn’t quite ready for experimentation at school, especially since it’s only her second week of kindergarten. Maybe I’ll be more open to challenging her choices later in the year.

First up, making “Chicken on the Beach” paired with broccoli and a side of ketchup. Her choices.

Mazzy loved cooking. She loved the story. She loved that I gave her relative autonomy in the kitchen. She made every single piece of chicken with gusto, like she has watched some characiture of a chef on YouTube. Which is entirely possible.

Having her help was a huge success.

When it came to plating, she watched as I put the chicken strips in a fancy Mighty Nest tray with compartments (similar to a Bento Box). The chicken strips looked a little lonely by themselves so Mazzy suggested I put tomatoes between them, which totally did the job.

Did being involved change the way Mazzy ate dinner?

Ummm…. yes and no.

She helped me set the table and we all sat down together which doesn’t usually happen. And we chatted about kindergarten instead of her begging for a treat the entire time. She ate what she usually eats— most of her vegetables and very little protein.

“But you made it? Aren’t you proud????”

“Yes, but I don’t want to eat it.”

“Okay, fine.”

Next day, we made “Deconstructed Mini Meatballs”, which means I put those three tray compartments to good use. Pasta in the large section, mini turkey meatballs in the medium section and pasta sauce as a dip in the smallest section.

Mazzy donned her adorable new kid-sized apron from Mighty Nest. I told her fold her arms and lean back, like they do in the opening credits of Top Chef. Mazzy had no idea what that meant, but humored me anyway.

Then she and Harlow had a blast rolling the ground turkey into balls. They did a great job and took it VERY SERIOUSLY.

When they were done, they went into the other room to play while I cooked them. Then I put together the trays with the pasta and sauce and placed them on our new placemats. I even added little toothpicks to the meatballs because I thought that would make dinner more fun.

FYI- Mazzy and Harlow both claim they don’t like tomato sauce, even though they both like pizza. I thought this would be an easy non-committed way to get them to try tomato sauce and obviously, once they tried it, they would realize the error of their ways.

“Wow! We are idiots! Tomato sauce is delicious! It tastes like pizza!!!”

It didn’t go down that way exactly…

Harlow immediately freaked out about the tomato sauce. “No ketchup! No ketchup!”

“That’s not ketchup, Harlow. It’s tomato sauce.”

“No ketchup! NO KETCHUP!!!!!”

Uh-oh, tears were forming. I grabbed the tray and wiped off the “ketchup”.

“Mazzy, you’ll try it, right?”

“No.”

Well, there goes that. They did eat most of their pasta, broccoli and meatballs, so that’s a win. And the toothpicks were a hit. Harlow was particularly enamored with the meatballs and it’s usually even harder to get her to eat protein than her sister.

The last dish we tried was a stir fried rice, which is a great option if you want to use all the random leftovers from the rest of the week to create something new. We had white rice from Chinese takeout and leftover peas and corn. I had Mazzy toss it all in a bowl and mix in an egg (yay for sneaky protein!).

Then I fried it up and served in a glasslock container that could be easily covered and stored in the fridge if they didn’t finish.

Mazzy wouldn’t touch it unless I picked out the peas, but Harlow went to town. This will be a new go-to for her, for sure.

Lessons Learned from the Mighty Nest Challenge:

1) Mazzy loves cooking with me in the kitchen. It is a really fun activity for us to do together and makes cooking much less of a chore.

2) Mazzy loved the apron, the kid-sized bamboo cooking utensils, our new placemats and the fancy TV trays from Mighty Nest. Harlow loved drinking from the insulated Think mug. “Coffee!!!” she screamed, even though she was drinking water. All the Mighty Nest products helped establish a more kid-centered approach to the kitchen and meal time.

3) Mazzy is still the pickiest eater I know.

4) There is hope for Harlow.

Whether my kids are still picky or not, I am all for taking steps in the right direction and will continue to involve my daughters in the kitchen— helping pick the menu, setting the table, or cooking the meal. If you would like to try the Mighty Nest challenge yourself, take the pledge to “empower your kids in the kitchen” by signing up with the widget below. This will also enter you to win $250 of MightyNest products, geared to make hand-made lunches and dinners more fun. This giveaway is only open to MommyShorts readers.

Additionally, if you identify your local school when you enter, you’ll support them in the Mighty School Challenge, where schools can win up to $10K this fall.

Speaking of winners, congratulations to Katie Leary, who won the last Mighty Nest Challenge! Please contact ilana@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.

Happy cooking!

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This post was sponsored by Mighty Nest but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

23 responses to “Chef Mazzy is Taking Orders in the Kitchen”

My son will help me make anything in the kitchen and loves to help. But getting him to eat what he helped make is a totally different story!
My 22 month old isn’t too picky so I am hoping she will stay that way!

It took me years to win on the sauce battle – finally I had my son make “at home” pizza with me for lunch and went into a BIG discussion about each ingredient. 5 hours later – we made “Stromboli” with all the exact same ingredients except we dipped the Stromboli into the pizza sauce and it progressed from there – Good luck

I know you are trying to get them to like tomato sauce, but how do your kids like Alfredo sauce? We make that same meatball, broccoli, pasta dish at home; but we add carrot and use alfredo sauce. My son seems to like that better than red sauce. And if he still refuses for some reason we let him sprinkle on parmesan cheese and that does the trick.
Its awesome you keep encouraging them to try new things. Hopefully they cave soon lol.

This actually makes me feel better about my picky eater! Whenever I see parents (or parenting experts) saying, “Get your kids involved with food preparation; they’ll be more likely to try things!” it makes me feel bad when that doesn’t work out in our house! It was a huge win when my son tried plain spaghetti with parmesan cheese (i.e., salt!). He also loves pizza, but won’t touch tomato sauce. Nor will he touch pasta in any other shape besides spaghetti (unless it’s store-bought mac-and-cheese). At camp, they had cooking, and he claimed he tried (and liked!) most of the things they made. But when I copied the recipe for *english muffin pizzas* to the letter, he refused to eat it, saying the ones at camp were in triangles, and these were not, and did I read the recipe?! Sheesh. It’s English muffins!!

Your story about cooking with your mom made me think of my mom making rice or oatmeal for me and my brother. To make it fun (and to get us to eat) she would lay out the bowls of plain white rice or oatmeal, then tell us we needed the ground on it and sprinkled cinnamon on top. Then it snowed, and she sprinkled sugar on top. Then it flooded, and she poured milk in. We loved it, we ate it all. Now I’m pregnant with my first and can’t wait to cook with him! (PS I just want to add that there was probably butter in my rice or oatmeal, snuck in by mom, because she was afraid I was too skinny and someone would report her for not feeding me enough. Butter on PBJ sandwiches was normal for me growing up, and mom later confessed that she put butter in EVERYTHING I ate!)

Our 3yr old LOVES to help in the kitchen and we thought she would want to eat the items that she prepared… But NO, she still won’t eat those things. So I feel better knowing it’s not just my kid. We bake together (she does the scooping, pouring, and mixing), she makes marinades and sauces, and she makes things like guacamole and pizza.

the linens are cute- look a lot like Orla Kiely stuff.
My son used a sandwich size glasslock container for sandwiches in kindergarten last year, (about 75% of the time- didn’t always have time to wash it). unfortunately, one of the plastic latches broke from the use and is dangling by a plastic thread. I wonder (I wish!) you could buy replacement lids separately. we got ours in person from a store here in our area, and I don’t remember seeing ‘just lids’

I had my then 3.5 year old help me make “Breakfast for dinner – Mommys birthday eggs” a few years back. I thought it would be a great way to incorporate more veggies in her diet as well as eggs which we rarely consumed. She enthusiastically helped mix the eggs then had great fun choosing her own omelet additives and watching it cook. Happily set the table while beaming over Mommys Birthday egg dinner. Sat down, looked at her creation, lip began to quiver and wailed “But … but … but … I don’t LIKE eggs!”
It really was my birthday. She got waffles 😉

I feel your pain. Having not picky eaters is a huge parenting goal for me. One thing that will more often than not help my kids is having something for them to sprinkle on their food. Calling salt or Parmesan cheese sprinkles somehow transforms them and the food. It doesn’t always work, but it is a little trick I’m proud of and thought I’d share!

Confession time. I’m not proud of it, but my two and a half year old had a slice of bread, half an apple and two pieces of sharp chedder cheese for dinner last night. The past couple of weeks, everything that he has been offered for dinner has been rejected. He eats breakfast with no issue, but always is asking for something snack like (cereal bar, granola bar, dry cereal, cut up apples, pieces of cheese, a yogurt). I like the idea of serving protein on little sticks like that. I will try that with cubed chicken.

My 5 year old daughter loves to help me cook. she just simply enjoys it and so do I, for the most part. I love how you plated the meals you made to be kid friendly, something I am going to have to do to get my daughter to eat more. I need to get my hands on those trays.

just made chicken on the beach with my 3.5 year old. it was fun, she was eager to try it, but then the dreaded, “i dont really like it”. I’m glad we did it anyway and I really love the narrative. Go Grandma shorts!

whenever the girls are cooking with you please please please turn around the chairs they are standing on so the back is against the bench….that way the legs cannot fly out from beneath them if the push with their legs when they are reaching for something or holding something hot/sharp. Cooking will not be a happy activity if an acvident happens

We’re on vacation! Not only are we starting off with excellent weather, we got a good shot taken by Mike on the very first night! Thanks, Daddy Shorts. 🙌🏻 First full day in paradise is on my story! #mommyshortsinmexico

There’s a new sculpture in Astor Place that broke my heart. It is called The Last Three. It’s 17 feet tall and represents the last three northern white rhinos on earth. Their names are Sudan, Nijan, and Fatu. Sudan is the last male. He is 45, which is the life expectancy for a rhino. His daughter is Nijan and his granddaughter is Fatu. Rhino horns are worth a ton of money so they are in constant threat of poachers. This public piece of art was created by artists Gillie and Marc with the hope of educating and inspiring others to care about the plight of the rhinos. It worked on me. Their aim is to collect 1 million goodbye messages on www.goodbyerhinos.org and put them towards a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns. Please like, comment and tag your friends to get this seen by as many people as possible and feel free to regram and share! 😥 #goodbyerhinos

New York is still freezing so instead of doing our usual ski trip in March, we decided to switch things up and go somewhere much warmer. Not sure when I’ll post on my feed, but you can follow along on my Instagram stories...🌴☀️🥝👙🦎⛱⛵️✈️🍹🤸‍♂️😎 #comingsoon

Sometimes I look at my Instagram account and think— man, this feed really needs some adults. Who is running this thing??? And because I know everyone is going to ask where @littlemissparty got her dress, I already asked. It’s vintage. She bought it when she was 19. Sucks for the rest of us! I got my shirt at Aritzia. Thanks for asking 🤣 Have you guys watched our Instagram lives together? I like doing it so much better with a friend! We are on a two week break because our schedules are all crazy but will do it again after that. What would you guys want us to talk about? Any questions for two NYC working moms???

Harlow has a very important message for everyone. Brought to you by Super Why, I think. Also, this impromptu performance was 100% because Harlow noticed me upping my intake of fruits and vegetables this week. 🍎🍌🥕💪🏻 #harlowunplugged #eathealthy